Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 179

Chapter 174: Refusing To Share Custody

Logan’s POV

“I know,” I said.

Clam

“Do you?” She looked at me. “Because I want you to understand what she has done here while you were gone. Not because I’m pushing you toward anything-that’s not my place, you’ve made clear enough that you don’t want me managing that.” A pause. “But because she deserves to have it acknowledged.”

I thought about the phone calls from Seattle. The eleven days of voicemail. The conversation where I’d called her finally and asked about Dante Wells and she’d answered what she knew and not pressed me on what I wasn’t saying.

“I’ll talk to her,” I said.

“Good,” my mother said. “Talk to her soon. She’s almost thirty, Logan. She has a career that’s been on hold for a year recovering from an injury. She won’t stay in this holding pattern forever.” She picked up her wine. “There are other men interested. I’ve seen it when we’re out. She’s still-she’s remarkable, and people notice.” A pause. “She’s been here every day, but she can’t wait indefinitely. If you’re going to do something,

do it.”

“I’ll talk to her,” I said again.

Sherry looked at me for a moment longer.

“Good,” she said again.

Catherine left after another hour, which she did without making it a significant departure-just gathered her coat and said goodnight and hugged my mother and looked at me with the expression that held several things she’d decided not to say tonight.

I walked her to the door.

On the front step, in the cold night air, she said: “Are you all right?”

“I don’t know yet,” I said, which was more honest than I’d planned.

She looked at me. “Seattle didn’t go the way you wanted.”

“No,” I said.

She was quiet for a moment. Not filling the space, which Catherine could do very well when she chose to. “She’s not coming back,” she said. “Is she?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Logan.” Her voice was gentle. “I know you. I’ve known you for a long time. And I think you know she’s not coming back. I think you’ve known it for a while.” She paused. “The question is what you do with that.”

13

Refusing Lo-Ste-Custody

Hooked at the street.

“I’ll figure it out,” I said.

She nodded. Touched my arm briefly, the way she sometimes did-the gesture of someone who was offering something without demanding it be received. “Get some sleep, she said. “You look like you haven’t slept properly in weeks.”

“A month,” I said.

“Sleep,” she said. “Everything looks different when you’re not exhausted.”

She left.

I stood on the front step in the cold for another minute and then went inside.

Claim

The call from my lawyer came Sunday morning.

I was on my second coffee, reading through the accumulated work that had piled up in a month of distraction. Nick was at the kitchen table with his tablet on the limited screen time he was allowed on weekends, and Mrs. Peterson was doing something in the laundry room.

The phone buzzed. My lawyer’s name.

I took it to the hallway.

“Logan,” he said. “I have information you need to hear.”

“Go ahead,” I said.

“We received notification Friday,” he said. “Sedona your former wife, or in process of being former-has filed with a Seattle family law firm. She’s requesting reinstatement of parental rights and joint custody of Nicholas.”

The hallway was very quiet.

“When,” I said.

“The filing was submitted earlier this week. Because the original documents were filed in Illinois, there’s a jurisdictional question that’s going to take some time to resolve-her attorneys are arguing she can file in Washington given her current residence, we’re going to contest that.” A pause. “But Logan, the filing is real and it’s moving. The changed circumstances argument-”

“What changed circumstances?” I said.

“Her health,” he said. “She’s attached Frank Mitchell’s medical documentation from St. Anthony’s. The treatment record, the marker trajectory, his interim assessment. She’s arguing that the original relinquishment was made under circumstances that have materially changed-specifically that she was terminal at the point of signing and is no longer terminal.”

I pressed my hand flat against the hallway wall.

“She’s also attached call records,” he continued. “Communication with Nicholas over the past several

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Refusing To Share Custody

wecks. Three phone calls of documented duration, a letter from him-”

“Nick wrote to her?” I said.

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